I’m still let down that we aren’t getting a Nintendo Switch Pro. I understand why – Breath of the Wild 2 is likely still a year away and the Japanese company doesn't want to fragment its growing consumer base, but knowing that the Switch OLED is little more than a small iteration on the existing design with a fancier screen really stings. I’ve pre-ordered one, because I’m a massive sucker, but knowing major issues like Joy-Con drift and consistent performance dips won’t be addressed is such a bummer. I’d vote with my wallet if I wasn’t such a simp and didn’t want one for work. Alright, I’ll stop making excuses.
Our own Cian Maher has talked about the anti-consumer ignorance of Nintendo failing to address the growing problem of Joy-Con drift before, something that ails the majority of Switch owners and makes the act of playing in both docked and handheld mode a nuisance for those without a pro controller. It’s a machine we’re paying close to £300 for, so such issues still being present over four years after the console’s original launch is unforgivable. My hope was for this to be addressed in the Switch OLED, but with the exception of its gorgeous display, curved dock, and addition of an ethernet port, everything on the new model is the exact same as the original. I welcome all of these new bells and whistles, but they aren’t enough in the grand scheme of things.
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I haven’t detached my Joy-Con from the Nintendo Switch unless I've been playing Ring Fit Adventure for almost a year, largely because I own a pro controller and use it for everything. So from a personal perspective, I can overlook the continued presence of drift, since my real bone to pick sits somewhere else entirely. For a number of first-party exclusives, performance on the Switch simply isn’t good enough. In fact, in a large number of cases, the reality is downright miserable. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is an excellent game, but it runs like garbage. The musou crossover struggles to maintain 30 frames per second at a resolution that causes the image to appear blurry and inconsistent. Given the game it’s taken inspiration from, it’s a shame to see its brilliance squandered by ambition that stretches far beyond what the hardware is capable of.
Perhaps the new dock will alleviate some of these struggles, but I’m not holding out hope. Age of Calamity will look a little shinier on the OLED display but will continue to run like ass, and that’s a big problem.
Breath of the Wild, the console’s masterful launch title, has suffered similar performance problems since day one that remain even now, a caveat you have to take into account in order to enjoy a game that is otherwise sublime. Link’s Awakening also has framerate hiccups, while Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition descend into a blurry, ill-performing mess that wouldn’t look out of place on the Wii.
Developers are clearly pushing the Switch far beyond its current capabilities, and I imagine some frustrations have arisen in regards to Nintendo’s ignorance to produce an iterative upgrade that keeps everyone in the fold while offering studios an extra pocket of power to tap into. Unfortunately we don’t have that, and won’t for a while, so the OLED will remain saddled with all the same burdens and no immediate solutions. The shortage of components caused by the pandemic likely forced Nintendo to make a compromise, abandoning the added power teased in earlier reports for the system, since beyond this, they were all right on the money.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the bigger picture wasn’t so all over the place. Super Mario Odyssey, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are all exclusives that look beautiful and run perfectly, so perhaps it’s simply a matter of optimization or the Switch not having the internal resources to deal with larger open worlds or several enemies on screen at once. While its many optimistic ports such as Doom and Wolfenstein are technical marvels, they are the worst ways to play these games, tanking visuals to such an obscene degree that only those who have the Switch and nothing else should bother playing them. The Switch OLED won’t change this perspective like a Pro could have, and that turns me off the platform in a way I really wish it didn’t.
No matter how the Switch OLED shakes out, it is little more than a temporary solution for a generation of consoles that has been showing its age ever since its inception. Nintendo’s games have never been about cutting edge graphics, with art design and mechanical innovation shining far brighter than increased polygon counts and HDR ever could. But when said experiences are subject to choppy performance and inconsistent visual fidelity I have to stand up and take notice. Please, I just want to play Age of Calamity without getting a migraine, is that too much to ask?